loS 



NATURE STUDY 



Fig L>b rip of a spin- 

 neret slnowing; spinning 

 tubes. 



if the teacher has a microscope, and will 

 cut off a spinneret and mount it in glyce- 

 rine on a glass slip, the numerous tinj' spin- 

 ning tubes may be readily seen (fig. 66). 

 When th° spider is spinning i. e. when it is 

 producing a silken line, a slender thread 

 issues from each of the spinning tubes on 

 each spinneret. All of these fine threads 

 from the many spinning tubes unite to form 

 the one strong line which we see. 



Field Work. To find and get acquainted with the appear- 

 ance and habits of some of the commoner different kinds of spiders, 

 the teacher should take the class afield. It will not be necessary to 

 wander far; the immediate vicinity of the school house, especially 

 if there be flowers and shrubbery in the yard, will contain nearly 

 all the kinds of spiders written of in these notes. For the sake 

 of teaching the teacher we shall find these spiders in a very regu- 

 lar sort of way; a way which will not be readily repeated in the 

 field. But because the teacher can get his knowledge of the few 

 kinds of spiders we wish to study much more readily and cer- 

 tainly if some orderly sequence in the observation of them is fol- 

 lowed, a sequence in finding the spiders is adopted. 



It is a familiar tact, I hope, that some spiders spin webs 

 for catching their prey, while some do not, but trust to pursuit by- 

 running or leaping. At any rate such is the fact and it ma\' be 

 our basis of primary classification of spiders by habits. The 

 house spiders with their cob-webs, the field spiders with their 

 silken sheets among the grasses, and the garden spiders with their 

 geometrically regular orbs hung in the shrubbery, are spiders 

 which belong to the web-weaving group. The black, swiftly run- 

 ning spiders that lurk under stones, the fierce-eyed little black 

 and red fellows hiding on the bark of trees, and the daintily 

 colored crab-like one lying quietly in flower cups, are spiders 



